Marian Petersen
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Marian Petersen 9/21/04, T1, S1 BL: Hello. MP: Hello. BL: I would like for you to tell me your full name, please. MP: I am Marian Nancy __ Petersen. BL: And what‟s your date of birth? MP: December 11th, 1918. BL: And that makes you how old? MP: Eighty-five. Approaching eight-six. BL: Can you tell me about your parents coming to Union County? MP: Yeah. I could give you a slight description, I guess. My father was from F__, Scotland. He was coming out to the States bringing another lady, woman, to marry a friend of his that was residing in Dayville area. That was his ticket in coming. He ended up in Dayville and was working for Jim Kamp and there were Scotch people around in John Day __ used to be many, anyway. I don‟t know if there is now. My mother lived in John Day. My grandmother on my mother‟s side had remarried and had moved down below John Day about half way between John Day and Mount Vernon. There was a Scotch family that lived just a short distance from there that my father became acquainted with and had helped them out quite a bit with hunting and etcetra. My mother was working there as a cook after she was out of high school…not high school, pardon me, out of grade school because they only went to the eighth grade then. In the eighth grade she didn‟t have the opportunity to go off to high school so she was working and that was where he met her. __ months later they married and came out to Baker and stayed all night and then they came on into La Grande and he ended up working for the Union Pacific Railroad. They lived in a rental house just below __ department store. That was where my brother was born was there in this rental house behind the __ apartment house on Adams. Then they moved to another rental house down on U Avenue and that was where I was born two days later. BL: You were born in the home? MP: Yes. Me and my brother __. BL: Were you ever told anything about your birthing experience at home? MP: No, not really. One thing that I remember about is the…my grandmother was over here with her __ taking care of Mother because my father was in bed with the flu, this was an epidemic at that time in 1919. So many people had died. My father was down with it and also my brother. I was born into that. BL: Was your grandmother from this area? MP: John Day. BL: She was from John Day. So when your parents moved her she came along, or she just came to help out? MP: She just came over to help because Mother was having me and her husband, my father, was ill and also my brother with the flu. They were pretty ill. BL: Was there a hospital in La Grande during that time? MP: Yes. The Grande Ronde Hospital. Up on… The old Grande Ronde Hospital up on the end of Adams. BL: Do you know why your mother decided to have a home birth instead of hospital birth? MP: Just one of those things they all used to do, I think, at that time. Very few, I think, went to the hospital. BL: And what about seeking treatment for the flu at the hospital? Would that have been custom or was it more custom to treat that at home as well? MP: The doctors used to come to our home. Dr. __ was a baby doctor. Dr. __ Richardson was a medical doctor that served our family. He was the one that was treating my dad. BL: Were there other doctors in town? MP: I‟m sure there were, but those were the only two that I knew of at that time. Of course Richardson was the one that was the head of the hospital up here. You know that big cross that‟s in the Grande Ronde Hospital right now, that huge big cross? That was his. BL: Where was the home located that you were born in? MP: Down on U Avenue. BL: U Avenue. MP: Yes. BL: Is it still there today? MP: Yes. What is it? 15-0-something on U Avenue. But it‟s still there. BL: So that‟s the home that you grew up in? MP: Yes. BL: How many years did you live in that home? MP: Probably about five or six years and then they bought a home down on 811 Spruce and that was where I was raised up there. BL: What would be your earliest memory while living on U Avenue? MP: Earliest memory? When we were little kids growing up I had probably started to school. I know we used to have lots of fun playing Kick the Can and Ante-Over and things like that, which kids don‟t do anymore. BL: Where did you play those games? MP: At our house. BL: At the house. MP: You threw the ball over the top of the roof of the house and said “Ante-Over.” Then after the people on the other side caught the ball then they‟d come around and catch you if you didn‟t run. [laughs] BL: And it was Ante-Over or Annie? MP: Ante. BL: Ante-Over. What other things did you do as a child for fun? MP: Roller skate and ride a bicycle. We only had one bicycle and roller skates. We did have two pairs of those, one for both of us. But we had to share the bicycle when we were growing up. BL: Was there a roller skating rink in La Grande? MP: Yes, but it was…I remember it, but I was older, probably in the upper grades, like eighth grade or something like that and in high school. There was a roller skating rink, it was upstairs over…probably it was upstairs probably where the Masonic Hall is now. They have a large ballroom up there and that was probably where it was. BL: Do you know what business was in there during that time? MP: There wasn‟t any business up there, but it was… It was just a roller skating rink up above. Down below I think the __ dress store. BL: Was the roller rink owned by the dress store then? MP: No. BL: It was owned separately? MP: Yeah. I don‟t remember who had it. BL: Were there roller skates available for rental or did you have to have your own? MP: They had rental skates. Didn‟t get to go there very often, maybe only two or three times is all. Didn‟t have the money. BL: I would imagine you had some responsibilities at home. Can you tell me about the responsibilities? MP: Feeding the chickens and whatever pets we had, which were numerous off and on. Sometimes… We always had a dog or a cat, but we also had a wild duck that we used to feed. Then we used to have a big goose that we kept care of. We were supposed to kill it for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it never happened. But they were stole from us. Our wild duck was stole from us and our goose was stole from us. BL: Really? MP: Yes. BL: Were they stolen right before the holiday for someone else‟s dinner? MP: No, they were just…they just strayed out too far from our house and we knew who had them both, but there was nothing you could do about it. BL: Did you raise chickens for the eggs? MP: Eggs and meat both. Used „em for both. BL: Did you live in a large neighborhood? MP: Yes, there were houses all the way around and then the mill was behind our house, the mill yard where they piled lumber. It was one of the mill workers going back and forth to work that chased the goose off. It was a man across the street from our house that got the duck. BL: Where did you go to school? MP: We went to grade school at Greenwood Elementary, which was the old Greenwood School. There‟s a new school there now. The old one was the basement level and then two stories high. BL: What was it like inside? MP: About…if you‟re familiar with Riveria very similar to that. We had recesses down in the basement and then they had the kitchen, too, which they served lunches in. But the lunches weren‟t like they have today. It was mainly cocoa and soup. You were supposed to bring your sandwiches. BL: The soup was homemade, though, cooked right there in the kitchen? MP: Yes. BL: Then did you buy a lunch ticket so you could get that or was that just part of going to school? MP: I don‟t remember. I think Mother had to pay for it. I don‟t remember if they ever…I‟m sure we had to pay. Probably ten cents or fifteen cents, something like that. BL: Were you involved in any activities in school? MP: Just with sports. BL: What kind of sports? MP: Baseball and we used to have games with a ball like a basketball or a volleyball, either one, that you just played in lines. There would be probably eight people in the line and you‟d pass the ball and run up to the post and back and the first ones done from front to back and things like that.